Editing Algorithm (section)

=== Computers ===

==== Weight-driven clocks ====
Bolter credits the invention of the weight-driven clock as "the key invention [of [[Europe in the middle ages|Europe in the Middle Ages]]]," specifically the [[verge escapement]] mechanism<ref>Bolter 1984:24</ref> producing the tick and tock of a mechanical clock. "The accurate automatic machine"<ref>Bolter 1984:26</ref> led immediately to "mechanical [[automata theory|automata]]" in the 13th century and "computational machines"—the [[difference engine|difference]] and [[analytical engine]]s of [[Charles Babbage]] and [[Ada Lovelace]] in the mid-19th century.<ref>Bolter 1984:33–34, 204–206.</ref> Lovelace designed the first algorithm intended for processing on a computer, Babbage's analytical engine, which is the first device considered a real [[Turing-complete]] computer instead of just a [[calculator]]. Although the full implementation of Babbage's second device was not realized for decades after her lifetime, Lovelace has been called "history's first programmer".

==== Electromechanical relay ====
Bell and Newell (1971) write that the [[Jacquard loom]], a precursor to [[Hollerith card]]s (punch cards), and "telephone switching technologies" led to the development of the first computers.<ref>Bell and Newell diagram 1971:39, cf. Davis 2000</ref> By the mid-19th century, the [[telegraph]], the precursor of the telephone, was in use throughout the world. By the late 19th century, the [[ticker tape]] ({{circa|1870s}}) was in use, as were Hollerith cards (c. 1890). Then came the [[teleprinter]] ({{circa|1910|lk=no}}) with its punched-paper use of [[Baudot code]] on tape.

Telephone-switching networks of [[relays|electromechanical relays]] were invented in 1835. These led to the invention of the digital adding device by [[George Stibitz]] in 1937. While working in Bell Laboratories, he observed the "burdensome" use of mechanical calculators with gears. "He went home one evening in 1937 intending to test his idea... When the tinkering was over, Stibitz had constructed a binary adding device".<ref>Melina Hill, Valley News Correspondent, ''A Tinkerer Gets a Place in History'', Valley News West Lebanon NH, Thursday, March 31, 1983, p. 13.</ref><ref>Davis 2000:14</ref>